The Long Take Review

From its secret surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival to its successful $15 million opening weekend , You Can See Everything seems to have created an unprecedented amount of buzz that has gone past critics’ circles and penetrated the general culture. And, having seen the groundbreaking documentary in which comedian Nathan Fielder goes up close and toe to toe with disgraced (and now inc...

When Warner Bros. announced that four-time Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu would be teaming up with legendary movie star Tom Cruise, Oscar pundits were abuzz with speculation about whether or not this could be Cruise’s chance to take home a competitive Oscar only a year after receiving an honorary one. Fast forward to the film Digger ’s release a couple weeks ago and, there’s no way to pu...

Former Dateline NBC journalist Chris Hansen, of To Catch a Predator fame, claims that nothing in Lance Oppenheim’s new film, Primetime , actually happened. He has made a point to criticize A24 and Oppenheim for not consulting him during the making of the film and saying the film is overly dramatized. At the same time, he has taken out ads to play before screenings of the film in theaters. You know...

If you’re like us and you love movies but also want your cinephilia validated by points awarded in an online competition, then you’ve come to the right place! Every year we at The Long Take Review head on over to Vulture to participate in the MFL or Movies Fantasy League . We come up with pithy usernames and then proceed to unwisely spend 100 fake dollars on this year’s films to create a roster. F...

Summer’s coming to an end, and for those of us invested in the health of the box office, it was a great one. In fact, the U.S. box office broke an all-time record with 4.76 billion ! This made our annual look back at summer movie season all the more celebratory as we shout out our favorites in a dozen superlative categories. We give credit to multiple films in each, and not just juggernauts like T...

On September 22nd, director George Lucas and business leader Melody Hobson will unveil their brainchild, The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, to the general public in Los Angeles. On September 5th, P.T., Greg (yes, Greg who lives across the country!), and I were lucky enough to visit the museum early, as a part of the Member Preview. And then, as if that weren’t enough, we ended the day with Maestro...

Whether or not they are personally into the films of Jane Schoenbrun, critics largely agree that the director of We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), and now Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026), is a singular auteur , making films that no one else would or could make. Their first two films were critical darlings of the Sundance Film Festival, and their late...

For many Oscar pundits and fans, the 91st Academy Awards, held on February 24, 2019, and honoring the films of 2018, became the most notorious when Green Book , a heartwarming odd couple comedy about a black pianist and his white driver, won Best Picture instead of presumed favorite, Alfonso Cuaron’s poignantly personal historical drama about a Mexico City family and their housekeeper, Roma . And...

Why is Spider-Man: Brand New Day spinning webs around the summer box office? How is it breaking all kinds of records ? We keep returning to this question throughout this week’s episode, coming up with various theories about what might be behind the massive success of the fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man film. What does this mean for superhero movies? For the future of the MCU? For Tom Holland’s caree...

It’s been a month since Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey arrived in theaters and nearly three weeks since we put out our first episode reviewing it . We’re happy to report that it’s still going strong. It handily passed the $1 billion mark in global box office by the first week of August, in spite of Spider-Man: Brand New Day breaking all kinds of records (don’t worry, we’re reviewing that for next...

You know, you have ONE troubled production that culminates in Harry Styles allegedly spitting on Chris Pine and that’s all critics want to remember you for. That may very well be a major frustration for Director Olivia Wilde as she tries to promote her newest film, a sex comedy drama called The Invite . Because over and over again I have seen headlines and reviews from critics framing their praise...

Happy Spider-Man weekend to all who celebrate! Our review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day may take a little while because I’m on vacation for the next couple of weeks, but, to tide listeners over, we wanted to record an episode in which we discuss Tom Holland’s portrayal of your friendly neighborhood Avenger up until Brand New Day . And who better to join us than our very own Marvel correspondent, Co...

Lightning does strike twice sometimes. Thank Zeus, Christopher Nolan has done it again with his epic sword and sandals adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey . After the enormous critical, awards, and box office success of his last film, Oppenheimer (2023), it’s hard to believe that Nolan could have immediately followed with an even bigger hit. But, with a $124 million domestic opening weekend and a wo...

If you’ve listened to our show for any sustained amount of time, you’ve probably heard me play a tiny snippet of the Indiana Jones theme anytime Greg brings up our favorite archaeologist adventurer. It comes as no surprise, then, that we will take any excuse we can to talk about one of the five franchise installments. And this year marks the 45th anniversary of the first, Raiders of the Lost Ark ....

Pixar films, and especially those in the Toy Story franchise, have always excelled at pitching to both kids and adults. Toy Story 5 takes that feature to the next level by tackling issues on every parent’s mind: screen time, devices, and Internet safety. As both parents of grade school kids and teachers of college students, Greg and I really ran with this topic and the film’s treatment of in it in...

The truth is really out there! This week on the show we talk about Steven Spielberg’s latest cinematic statement on extraterrestrial life, Disclosure Day . In theaters now, the science fiction thriller is full of intense chase sequences, inexplicable phenomena, and an astonishing performance from Emily Blunt; all of that prompted us to over-analyze, over-interpret, under-critique (if we’re being h...

Here at The Long Take Review, we are incredibly excited to see master filmmaker Steven Spielberg return to the sci-fi thriller genre for the first time since War of the Worlds in 2005. But, as fans of his know, his filmography of over 60 years spans many other genres as well. So what better way to celebrate the architect of the modern summer blockbuster than to have a draft of all of his films to...

The box office is booming, but, weirdly, it’s not because there’s a new Star Wars film in theaters for the first time in seven years. Two low budget horror films that have ties to YouTube, Backrooms (which cost $10 million) and Obsession (which cost < $1 million), have raised eyebrows and questions about the future of theatrical moviemaking. This unexpected windfall caught our attention as well, s...

The Internet can’t seem to decide if The Mandalorian and Grogu is actually doing well at the box office so far. Many news article frame the opening weekend as a failure, saying it is a “disappointment ” that hits a “series low.” Meanwhile, other articles have crowned the action adventure film as the winner of the long weekend. According to box office analyst Scott Mendelson , the early performance...

Star Wars is about to return to cinemas with Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu , which is just days away from its opening weekend. To celebrate Star Wars on the big screen, and, frankly, to calm our nerves as we restlessly await the new film, we recorded an extra long take in which we rank all twelve films from the franchise that were released in theaters. (In case your math is not mathing,...

Strike a pose and prepare your finest fit montage because we’re reviewing The Devil Wears Prada 2 ! Having looked back at the original film last week, Greg, P.T., and I size up one of the most anticipated sequels of the summer movie season. What surprised us about this reunion 20 years later? What delighted us? And how might this film be the perfect encapsulation of life, media, and technology in...

Gird your loins! The first movie of the summer movie season, The Devil Wears Prada 2 , is in theaters now. To prepare for our review, we wanted to turn back the clock twenty years and revisit (or, for some of us, watch for the first time) the original film starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt. What feels dated? What holds up? Is this the Meryl Streep show or an ense...

When Oscar nerds think back to the 71st Academy Awards, they remember Shakespeare in Love , which won seven Oscars, Saving Private Ryan , which won five, and maybe Life is Beautiful , which won 3. (I still remember actor/director Roberto Benigni climbing on the seats to get to the stage when his film won in what is now the International Feature category.) Too often, though, people forget that the...

For once, a trailer didn’t spoil the movie! The marketing materials for Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama , playing in theaters now, have kept one big reveal fundamental to the plot of the film a secret. And considering it made $14 million its opening weekend and is currently at over $46 million worldwide , it seems as though that decision has paid off. Was it purely the intrigue and mystery of the pl...

Now that Oscar season has ended, we finally have a chance to catch our breath and talk about new movies in 2026! Greg and P.T. give their SPOILER-FREE takes on eight movies that they’ve enjoyed. So if you’re in the market for recommendations, but you don’t want to go into a spoilery deep dive with them, this episode is for you. They also managed to mention nearly every other movie that has been re...